Kuang Ye gazed southward in sorrow. The deputy general ran over with the soldiers and asked eagerly, "General, shall we continue north?"
Kuang Ye swept them a glance and asked, "Have the eastern and western forces stopped?"
"They have. They said the New Year is approaching, and they need to wait for provisions. If they keep advancing, they fear the supplies will not keep up."
Kuang Ye's face remained expressionless. "They finally remembered the matter of provisions?"
The deputy general chuckled and continued, "General, we requisitioned some supplies locally. Shall we keep moving forward?"
"No!" Kuang Ye pointed at the vast grasslands to the south and asked, "What meaning is there in going farther north? How to govern these endless grasslands is itself a problem."
The deputy general frowned. "Why not establish prefectures and counties? Govern this place the way the Central Plains are governed."
"No," Kuang Ye said. "This place differs from the Central Plains. The herdsmen of the grasslands have their own customs of life and their own wisdom in governance. To suddenly bind them with the rites and regulations of the Central Plains would be an agony beyond measure to them. Rebellion easily takes root beneath suffering. Without a foolproof plan, rashly marking this land as our territory will leave future troubles behind—and those troubles will never end."
The deputy general stared wide-eyed. "Are we wrong to expand our territory?"
Kuang Ye shot him a glance. "Only useful territory is a benefit. Before the Imperial Court has figured out how to govern this region, it is a barrel of gunpowder."
The deputy general was a military officer. He did not understand Kuang Ye's concerns. In his view, once territory had been conquered, soldiers only needed to be sent to guard it.
"Build Wei Suo, open military farms,